And the Oscar for best performance by a hashtag goes to…

Mar 08, 2018 • Aaron Goldman

Every year, the Academy Awards provide a platform for celebrities to promote social causes and the 90th Oscars coalesced around the women’s movement and gender equality.

Or, as host Jimmy Kimmel (65% positive sentiment) said in reference to The Shape of Water (2,324,541 engagements), “We will always remember this year as the year men screwed up so badly, women started dating fish.”

As with previous Hollywood awards shows this season, the movement was amplified via social media with hashtags for #metoo (70,282 instances) and #timesup (35,984 instances) spiking during the Oscars.

There was an additional entrant on Sunday for #hereweare (23,954 instances) which was anchored by an ad for Twitter that ran during the show.

For marketers that seek to leverage the massive Oscars audience across screens, coordinating TV and social media advertising is critical to success.

This year, a number of brands did this quite well with Kinder (1,800% lift), Bubly by PepsiCo (1,400% lift), and Disney Parks (978% lift) leading the way.

Beyond just ensuring consistent placement across both channels, brands need to consider whether or not to get involved in various causes and, if so, which one(s) to focus on.

For example, the Disney audience overindexes on LGBTQ rights more so than Gender Equality.

Indeed not all causes, gender or otherwise, are created equal so it’s helpful to have data from the limitless focus group of social media to guide you.

And it’s important to measure the impact from your efforts when you do take a stand as a brand.

Such was the case with Dick’s Sporting Goods (32% sentiment lift) when it changed its policies on gun sales following the tragedy in Florida.

Walmart also took steps to tighten up its policies for firearms and ammo but Gun Control is not one of the six biggest causes valued by its audience.

Of course, this doesn’t mean Walmart, or any other brand, should only act on the causes its constituency cares about ­– sometimes you just have to be a responsible corporate citizen – but analyzing the data is always advisable.